Slippery floors are potential disasters for unaware pedestrians. Every year, slip and fall accidents result in thousands of disabling injuries, and these accidents often bring about lawsuits. Safety cones, floor signs and barricades are widely used in all types of retail stores, restaurants, gas stations, hospitals, schools, etc., to warn pedestrians of the danger of slipping or falling. Typically, these devices are brightly colored to alert people. They usually have cautionary statements printed on them, advising pedestrians of a possible danger.
Although most establishments dutifully mop up wet floor areas, mopping usually does not sufficiently dry the area, especially when there is continual foot traffic that may bring in rain or snow from the outdoors. Marking the boundaries of the wet floor area, with safety cones or other types of barricades, serves to warn pedestrians, but does not aid in fixing the hazard, and the wet floor simply has to air dry.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0115783 discloses a combined floor dryer and caution sign in which a power driven fan unit is carried near a caster-supported base surface of a caution sign. The device is useful in that it provides the dual function of warning individuals of a wet floor area while at the same time facilitating the drying of that area. But the disclosed device suffers from significant design flaws. It teaches that the fan should only be directed to blow in one direction, more particularly, from one side of the sign. This limits the area that can be treated, and suggests that, in use, the sign is to be placed outside the boundaries of the wet area. This can increase the chances that an individual will walk into the wet area. Also, the air, directed as it is, will not necessarily blow across the ground surface for a significant distance. Similar design flaws are evident in U.S. Design Pat. No. D328,615.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a device that may be used in association with a safety cone, floor sign or barricade system that would aid in drying a wet floor. And there is a further need in the art that such a device be designed to treat a significant surface area, preferably permitting placement of the warning sign in the center of a wet area.